The Wire: ... And There Was Much Rejoicing

Barry McBride

07/29/2004

Browns Head Coach Butch Davis was outwardly optimistic about the team's improvement in the off-season yesterday, saying that the club has improved as much in the last six months as the previous 2 and a half years. Did this optimism survive into the newspapers? You can find out that, as well as some other roster tidbits, in this morning's newswire!

Good morning Browns fans!

The Newswire wrap is arriving a little later this morning, because the system we use
to publish articles was cranky. Fortunately, using his years of experience and
technical expertise, your webmaster was able to provide just the right sequence
of backhands, expletives, and thrown objects to convince the balky web server
that cooperation was in its best long-term interests.

The tackle situation, which the team had hoped to address during the
off-season, was clearly considered to be too dependent on the health of Ross Verba, leading to the team's new focus on DeMar as a back-up.

The primary beneficiary of the new approach is OL Chad Beasley, who moves
into the tentative position as the #1 LG. He will still be facing competition
from Melvin Fowler, Paul Zukauskas and others, and will have to win the role in
training camp. Beasley, a converted defensive lineman, has been a Browns project
since the 2002 season.

This morning's articles also discuss the signing status of draft picks, with
Tony Grossi providing the information that
conversations with Kevin Poston will continue via telephone now that the
agent has left Berea after four hours of discussion yesterday. The Browns
continue to zero in on signing Luke McCown to a five-year deal, although the
quarterback and his agent are hesitant about the five-year length of the deal.

This afternoon on Bernie's Insiders, look for the first part of Swerb's look
at training camp (to be completed Friday morning), and my take on the Browns
approach to signing rookies. We have also been continuing to update our player
profiles and will be updating the depth chart this afternoon.